<p>Colleges want superficial diversity, nothing more. The adcoms want to look out of their ivy-covered towers and see students of all colors simply because that makes them feel good; somehow they feel that if their campus has a rainbow of skin colors, that proves that they are not racists (what’s ironic is that colleges achieve this “diverse mix” by judging people based on their skin color, which is the hallmark of racism).</p>
<p>That’s…not at all true.</p>
<p>In most countries around the world – but the U.S. in particular, since that’s what we’re talking about – skin color (race) has shaped the way people were treated, where they lived, and therefore other things about themselves. In the U.S., a person’s race shaped what their ancestors could or couldn’t do and thus their attitudes about certain things (as they are passed down through generations); where they lived, whether their parents and grandparents went to college or worked white-collar jobs, even the regional dialect they spoke and certain foods they eat.</p>
<p>As a result of systematic racism during nearly the entire existence of this country (save the last 50 or so years), African Americans, Latinos, Asians Americans, Native Americans, and Jewish Americans have – to varying degrees – been discriminated against and kept out of prestigious universities and colleges with varying methods. Jewish Americans were the first to beat the odds, and some Asian American ethnicities are having more luck than anyone breaking racial barriers as far as higher education goes, but many of those racial groups (African Americans, Latinos, and Native Americans in particular) are still underrepresented at top universities.</p>
<p>Colleges don’t want to just look out the window to see different colors and slap themselves a high-five. There’s the underlying notion that the college-educated in our country should reflect the racial makeup of our country – that the campuses of our most elite universities should resemble the cultural and racial fabric of our country – and that cultural and racial diversity promotes mutual understanding and can serve to dissolve racial prejudices and help equalize races in this country.</p>
<p>It seems incredibly stupid to believe that colleges spend millions attempting to recruit underrepresented minority students to their campuses – and fight long, drawn-out court cases – simply for the pleasure of seeing a few brown students wandering around on their sprawling greens. If they really didn’t care and did it all for appearances, they wouldn’t be spending their money and sending their lawyers to court.</p>